Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Where Should You Place Your Aquaponic System

If you are decided to set up an aquaponic system in which to grow vegetables and fish for you and your family,
there are some things which you should know. The types of fish, the seeds which can be propagated and the details
about the appropriate water conditions are the basic notions you have to know before venturing in this activity.
Once you know that you can start putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. Yet, another question arises: where
should you place your aquaponic mini-garden?

Monday, August 26, 2013

PVC in Aquaponics

Recently someone questioned me about using PVC pipe with an aquaponics system. My first response was it was safe.

PVC is safe!...Millions of homes across the world have these pipes installed.
What was now running around in my head was "organic and safe food." I am
big on research and so I set out to prove the PVC safety issue was
fine.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Advantages and Disadvantages of Aquaponics

We
covered this briefly during the early part of our research phase but I
though it would be good to provide some additional detail and opinion
now that we have researched aquaponics in greater depth and have some
personel experience. It is obvious (from looking through this site) that I have a bais in favour of aquaponics (we
have invested significant time, energy and money in aquaponics) though I
have attempted to set this aside and provide an unbiased assessment of
some of the claimed advantages and disadvantages. The purpose of this
post is is to determine if there is evidence to support the commonly
made claims found on forums and wedsites (and as important some of the perceived claims) and where there isn't to provide an opinion based on our experience and/or the information available.

The emphasis of this list is a discussion relating to back yard systems rather then commercial systems.

3D-1 Aquaponics systems video

The internet is full of free resources to use in order to make your life
easier. There are many reasons to download models rather
than creating one from scratch. To save time, save money or even for
testing lighting. As long as you follow the users rules, it is perfectly
acceptable to download these models. Below an 3D movie

Friday, August 23, 2013

Tilapia Growth Chart

About 4 to 6 weeks from hatching,
fingerlings should be about 1 gram, if culture temperatures are in the
mid 80's (degrees F). The following table assumes that warm temperature
range, moderate to aggressive feeding, in terms of percent biomass per
day, and also assumes that fish stocking densities do not exceed 80kg
per cubic meter (about 2/3rds pound per gallon)

3D Aquaponics systems

The internet is full of free resources to use in order to make your life easier. There are many reasons to download models rather
than creating one from scratch. To save time, save money or even for
testing lighting. As long as you follow the users rules, it is perfectly
acceptable to download these models. Below an a linkto 3D aquaponics system

Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture (fish farming) and hydroponics (soil-less plant culture).
Aquaponics is the ideal answer to a fish farmer’s problem of disposing
of nutrient rich water and a hydroponic grower’s need for nutrient rich
water. Essentially, aquaponics mimics every natural waterway on earth.
It is used to grow food crops in a concentrated, yet sustainable
manner.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Starting an aquaponic system

Introduction

This
experiment is an introduction into the functions and management of a
small aquaponic system. Like a home aquarium, an aquaponic system
requires special
attention in the first weeks, since the microbial community in the water
and in
the plant boxes need some time to get established.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

How much space is required for
an Aquaponics System?

Well that depends on how big a
system you want to build and what you make the system out of.
We are always being asked how big a system do I need to feed a
family of four - the answer is how much does a family of four eat!
Consider, how many fish do you want and how many plants do you want
to grow. A 1,000 litre (264 US Gallons) tank in your aquaponics
system will support between 50 and 80 fish. That will support
between 1,200 (317 US Gallons) and 1,800 litres (475 US Gallons) of
grow beds taken that the grow beds are about 300 millimeter (12
inches) deep.

Day to day handling of fish and plants in the aquaponic system

Introduction

This
experiment focuses on the day to day handling of fish and plants in your
already established aquaponic system (please carry out experiments 1-3 of this teaching unit first). It
gives you useful hints about monitoring the plants, the fish and the system as
a whole.

Learning goals

Know
what are the daily, weekly and monthly tasks when maintaining an aquaponic
system

Know
what is causing stress to fish and what to do about it

Be able
to make a fish health check up by observing different body characteristics

Iron deficiency is one of the most common deficiencies in an
aquaponics garden, it is responsible for the yellowing of plant leaves.
Furtunately, this Iron deficiency is also one of the easiest problems to
fix: simply adding a small amount of Chelated Iron fertilizer at
regular intervals is all that is needed.
Iron deficiency in an
aquaponics garden is quite common. In aquaponics, unless you add
additional sources for the nutrients, all nutrients that come into the
system will come through the fish food. Not all trace elements are
introduced in the fish food.

One of the shortcomings for all aquaponics systems has been the ability
to provide the systems with the right combination of trace elements to
grow blooming plants. This is not to say that the nutrients in fish
waste aren’t ample to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, squash, beans,
zucchini, etc. because we have been able to grow them. However . . .
fish waste alone doesn’t produce ENOUGH iron, magnesium, calcium and potassium to continually
grow large amounts of these blooming plants. This is one of the key
reasons that aquaponics has been slow to commercialize. It’s a fact that
greens (lettuce, basil, kale, etc.) can be grown in almost any
aquaponics system very successfully in almost any climate. But the trick
is to consistently
grow blooming plants that produce multiple crops of (example) tomatoes,
peppers, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, and beans on fish waste alone
because the required blossoming-supportive nutrients are quickly
stripped out of the water and blooming plants cannot continually blossom
and grow plants that produce fruit/vegetables without adding chemicals
because of nutrient deficiencies; fish waste alone does NOT
produce ENOUGH iron, magnesium, calcium and potassium to continually
grow blooming plants that produce food in aquaponics.

Aquaponics iron, aquaponics magnesium, aquaponics calcium

more info we can porvide in our daily newsletter
Aquaponics, ækwəˈpɒnɨks, pisciponics
http://aquaponics-commercial-backyard.blogspot.com.es/

How do worms survive in an aquaponic grow bed? Don’t they drown?

We have all seen worms crawling out onto the sidewalk after a soaking
rain, seemly gasping for air. That they choose exposure to the sun and
hungry birds to the water logged soil seems to tell us that worms don’t
like soaking wet environments. And what is an aquaponics grow bed if not
a soaking wet environment?The difference with aquaponics worms is that they do not remain
constantly full of water, but rather flood, and then drain. This allows
for a “drying out” period between soakings that also encourages air
circulation within the grow media.This brings me to the most important reason why worms thrive within
aquaponics: oxygen. The reason why those worms crawl from the soil to
their death on the sidewalk is not because of the water, but because the
water has forced the oxygen out of the soil. In aquaponics, however,
not only does the flood and drain action pull oxygen into the grow bed
media, but the water that is circulating throughout the system is highly
oxygenated. In fact, I’ve found aquaponics worms thriving within my
sump tanks!

Most of us aquapons know that the health of all the creatures in our
systems (fish, plants, worms, and bacteria) depends on proper pH. We
also know that we are targeting pH in the 6.8 to 7.0 range but that we
don’t have to worry about adjusting it until it goes down to 6.4 or up
to 7.8. We also know that the best way to lower pH is with an acid, and
that the best way to raise it is with carbonates or hydroxides. We know
that rapid changes in pH can be very stressful to fish. And we know that
the pH will probably decrease over time because the nitrogen cycle
produces an acid (nitric).
But often, knowing all of this and applying it to our systems are two different things. At The Aquaponic Source, we handle questions and concerns each and every day about pH. Generally, the questions fall into one of two categories:

One of the challenges of growing in an indoor
aquaponics environment is that we don’t have nature’s pollinators
available to us. But is this a big problem for most aquaponic gardeners?
It depends entirely on what you are growing. The only time that you
need to worry about pollination is when you are growing a plant to
harvest its fruit (e.g. tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, etc.) or if you are
saving seeds and you need the non-fruiting plants to produce seeds.

Here's a drawing and a photo of the integrated vertical tube aquaponics system we
built. The photo shows the tubes in the planting/harvesting position; normally
they are rotated 180 degrees so that the openings face the window.

Speeding Up The Cycling Process

When cycling aquaponics systems, the process can be speeded up by
adding bacteria to the system, rather than waiting for it to show up on
it’s own. Heating the water to the optimum temperature will speed things
up further.

Aquaponic Systems Growing Methods

The way aquaponic systems are built are endless. The
two parts that are the same are the fish tank and a plant bed. Some of
the differences include filtration techniques, plumbing, the type of
plant bed, growing medium, and the frequency of water and aeration. Some
of the more popular aquaponic methods emerging in the industry are
methods based on a hydroponic system design, and raising fish for
filtration.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

WHAT
ARE THE BENEFITS OF AQUAPONICS?

Reduced water use
Reduced chemical use
Reduces pesticide use when set up in a greenhouse
Reduces erosion by eliminating the need to plough
the soil
Reduced running costs compared to a conventional horticultural
farm

HOW
MANY FISH AM I ALLOWED TO HAVE IN A TANK?

Aquaponics, ækwəˈpɒnɨks, pisciponics

Again this will depend on whether the system is a
commercial or backyard system, with the commercial
systems requiring the correct amount of fish and plants
for optimum production. The more fish there are in
a system, the more nutrients there are for the plants
to consume, but if there are not enough plants to
consume these nutrients, the excess build up in the
water can cause the fish to suffer.
As a general rule, backyard systems can stock between 10 - 30 kg of fish per 1000 litres of water.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Best Plants to Grow in an Aquaponics System

There are many plants that grow well in soil less farming. These
include vegetables, aquatic plants, flowers and even fruit trees. There
are other vegetables that will not work well in an aquaponic system.
Root vegetables such as carrots, onions and potatoes should not be used
in these systems. You can grow them, but it would not be easy. They
need a medium close to soil like sand in order to grow.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

What Equipment You Need for an Aquaponics System

An aquaponics system is a symbiotic marriage of plants and
aquatic animals cultivated in a recirculating environment. There are
various types of aquaponic systems used for growing vegetables or
plants. Knowing how big you want your aquaponic system to be before you
purchase it will allow you to set a budget. Read on to learn a little
about the basic equipment needed for aquaponics systems.

Bell Siphon Construction

A bell siphon is an “easy” way to drain a grow-bed in a aquaponic or
hydroponic system. The idea is that in an ebb and flow system, you have a
tank of fertilizer (for aquaponics its a fish tank) and a grow bed full
of plants. You then pump the fertilizer into the grow-bed and the
plants eat. The problem is that you cannot generally have the plant
roots submerged in water all the time as the roots will rot. And you
have to have a means to empty the tank so it does not overflow.

Tilapia Growth Chart

About 4 to 6 weeks from hatching, fingerlings should be about 1 gram, if culture temperatures are in the mid 80's (degrees F). The following table assumes that warm temperature range, moderate to aggressive feeding, in terms of percent biomass per day, and also assumes that fish stocking densities do not exceed 80kg per cubic meter (about 2/3rds pound per gallon)

Welcome to Aquaponics and You, the place to come to learn all about the amazing science of aquaponics. If you are new to aquaponics, here are 5 reasons why having an aquaponics garden is a good idea, just to help you decide if aquaponics is right for you.